Transcript

MURRAY COOK:

I think one of the things we did which helped people actually was focus on what's our way. Why are we here? Because often, we go through life, don't we? And we do things. We do transactional stuff. We deliver an objective.

And one of the things I think worked in this environment was what's our why, why are we doing this? Why should we be doing this? Should we be doing this? Should we stop this perhaps? Or should it be faster? And for me, that was really important.

We talked about how the transactional environment is changing. So, a transactional environment is where if you can virtually shake people's hands. So, be it students, staff, regulators, funders. We talked about the contextual environment, where you have demographics.

You've got things like geopolitical activity going on. And that, I think, really helped. And I knew at this point it will help you figure out why all you here, what's unique about us.

ANNE GAMBLES:

I think the workshop had kind of a gentle approach really to that. We kind of ease people in. We were very mindful of that we were doing this in an online environment and that working with people who didn't necessarily know each other or the technology that we're using. We used the Miro online whiteboard.

So, we gave people a little bit of kind of pre-work, I guess, if they wanted to and they had time to. And we gave them a link so that they could explore some online learning materials which are just 10 minutes of exposure to how to use Miro. And then in the workshop sessions, we generally started with an introductory activity, where people could sort of do a bit of an icebreaker, and introduce themselves, and have a little bit of a play in Miro in a safe kind of way.

So, they can have a bit of experience of how to create a sticky note and write things on it. It was a learning experience, I would say, running workshops in Miro online was a learning experience. I think one of the key things we learnt was to share the link to the Miro board and enable people to navigate it for themselves is a far better user experience than sharing a screen with Miro on it. If you do that as a facilitator, then it's possible that some of your participants will experience motion sickness because they're not controlling the screen.

MURRAY COOK:

One of the things we talked about in quite depth actually was what they almost the behaviours we expect. So, we expect people to have an equal voice. We expect people to contribute and be there. Actually, we expect people to, if you like, have respect for others' viewpoints.

At first, quite important because the future is not here yet. It's not defined. And people have very often quite strong views about what it should look like. The future's agnostic to you. So, it's about exploring that future, which is not what you want it to be.

So, one of the things we did or talked about was how we try and let those voices come through. And equally, when you're on a call, or a Miro board, or a virtual environment, some people are even in if you like a some people are quieter. And if you're in a room, you can spot those people. You can try and bring them into conversation. In a virtual environment, it's a little bit more difficult.

ANNE GAMBLES:

I guess some people just need a bit of time, don't they, to, I guess immerse themselves in the session and gain just a little bit more understanding of what's going on, what it's about, we're doing futures thinking, this is a new thing. And yeah, I’m in with these new people who I don't necessarily know. But yeah, they gain confidence as they go together and realise that whoever they are, their view is really important. And I think just setting those ground rules was really helpful towards that, gave people that confidence to say, to put their views over.

MURRAY COOK:

It's so important that everyone has – everyone's opinion's the same. So, if you're SLT, you're a big person, actually everyone has a different view of the world. So, let's acknowledge that. Secondly, the other thing we had a couple of people came back a couple times, they started refining their views.

So, they said, first time around it was like, OK, this is going on. second time, right, oh, actually, I've been reflecting on this. And suddenly, I'm seeing something different happening in the world because I'm joining up the dots. I'm joining up the conversation. I thought it was very powerful as well.